Teachers were respected for their learning and usually took an active part in the community. Lucy Palmer, a schoolteacher in Malpeque from 1887 to 1890, writes very little about her life as a teacher, but shows how active her social life was. She was invited out constantly to parties, picnics, drives, quilting parties, walks, and neighbour’s houses for tea or supper. Her diary gives a lively picture of community life in Malpeque at the turn of the 19th century.

Teenager Wesley Turner’s diary shows that his interests at the time were not on his education. Wesley writes about the chores he performs, such as chopping wood or going to the store to buy or exchange goods, visits to friends and neighbours, the weather and its effects on the crops, and his attempts to have his poetry published. His comments on attending Upton School, however, are confined to either, “I went to school today” or “I didn’t go to school today.” His reasons for not going include the school stove not working properly, the weather being too stormy, or working. However, in one entry, he writes that his father thinks him too sick to go to school – but Wesley manages to do work around the farm that day!